Category: Uncategorized

Budapest, December 1 (MTI) – Losses in tax revenue resulting from the government’s decision to cut payroll taxes next year could be partially offset by an uptick in economic growth, Economy Minister Mihály Varga said on Thursday. The government expects a GDP growth rate of more than 3 percent in 2017, Varga told parliament’s economic committee in his annual ministerial hearing. Under an agreement reached last week between the government, employers and unions, minimum wages for unskilled workers will be raised by 15 percent and for skilled workers by 25 percent in 2017. In 2018 the minimum wages will be ... Read more

Budapest, December 1 (MTI) – The metropolitan court of appeal has ruled in favour of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a lawsuit former prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány brought against him. The ruling concerning Gyurcsány’s company, Altus, overturns the court of first instance’s ruling in Gyurcsány’s favour. Bertalan Havasi, Orbán’s press chief, told MTI on Thursday that Gyurcsány, the leader of the opposition Democratic Coalition party, had sued the premier because Orbán had questioned the legitimacy of a European Union tender won by Altus. In 2015, Orbán told a news conference in Strasbourg that he had never witnessed the likes ... Read more

Budapest, November 2 (MTI) – The Budapest and Tunis chambers of commerce and industry signed a cooperation agreement at a Hungarian-Tunisian business forum in Budapest on Wednesday. The deal covers cooperation in agriculture, the food industry, infrastructure development, water management, renewable energy, IT and construction, Zoltán Kiss, head of the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BKIK), said at the forum organised by the BKIK and the foreign ministry. The agreement will provide a framework for members of the BKIK and Budapest-based companies to pursue business opportunities with Tunisian partners, Kiss said. Citing data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH), ... Read more

Budapest, July 13 (MTI) – Visitors can expect to view more than 200 vehicles at this year’s international truck country festival in Sziksósfürdő and Szeged, in southern Hungary, over the weekend, the organiser of the event said. Drivers will arrive with their trucks from Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Romania and Serbia at the festival organised for the 26th time, Attila Ágoston told MTI. The festival this year will feature 30-35 year old US trucks and veteran army vehicles as well, he said. Drivers will gather with their vehicles on Friday afternoon at a transport monument just outside Szeged ... Read more

Budapest, October 8 (MTI) – A Syrian national found guilty by a local court of kicking a police officer in the chest was given a suspended prison sentence of 18 months and expelled from Hungary for two years, the Vas County prosecutor’s office told MTI on Thursday. The prosecution said the man got off a train after arriving in Szombathely, in northwest Hungary, and ran away from police with several other migrants. Police caught up with the group by car, took them back to the train station and escorted them to another trainAustria. The Syrian man then got up on ... Read more

According to napimigrans.com, Iraqi refugees sent a message to their compatriots on Facebook not to come to Europe because they will regret it – Finnish Yle television said. According to the website Sputnik, the video reveals Iraqis fleeing war have been considering how to go back their shattered homeland. “I wish we had not come to Europe” – the refugees said on the video who also revealed that they spent a lot of money to go here. “We made a serious mistake by coming to Europe” – they told the Finnish television. Mustafa, who sent a message to his compatriots ... Read more

Budapest, October 5 (MTI) – So far this year police have rounded up 312,111 migrants who entered Hungary illegally, a spokeswoman of the national police headquarters said on Monday. Some 5,925 people crossed the border on Sunday, including 43 from Serbia and 5,878 from Croatia, Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs told public news channel M1. Since the introduction on Sept. 15 of legal amendments making illegal border crossing a criminal act, police have taken criminal proceedings for illegal border crossing in 542 cases and in 21 cases for damaging the border fence, she added. Attila Kiss, the deputy director of the immigration office, ... Read more

Budapest, October 4 (MTI) – Police apprehended 6,056 people crossing Hungary’s border illegally on Saturday, a summary by the national police headquarters (ORFK) early Sunday shows. Six of the foreigners were taken into custody, Attila Kiss, the deputy head of the immigration office (BAH), said on public television. A total of 176,113 applications for asylum have been registered so far, and another 53 people sought asylum on Saturday, he told new channel M1. Photo: MTI

Budapest, September 25 (MTI) – Riot police’s investigation office heard on terrorism charges the Syrian man, who was taken in preliminary detention for his alleged role in clashes between migrants and police at the Serbian-Hungarian border last week, the Hungarian police said on its website on Friday. The preliminary detention of the suspect, known as Ahmed H, was ordered by a local court earlier this week for his alleged role of being one of the organisers of the riot at the Roszke border crossing on September 16. The national police headquarters said earlier this week that according to international information ... Read more

Budapest, September 25 (MTI) – The number of asylum procedures that had to be cancelled this year is set to exceed 75,000 on Friday, the director for refugee affairs of Hungary’s immigration office told public news channel M1. Arpad Szep said that in 80 to 85 percent of the cases, asylum procedures are cancelled because the asylum seeker flees before the procedure is completed. Szep said 95 percent of the asylum procedures launched this year had to be cancelled because the immigration office was unable to determine whether the applicant was eligible for refugee status. The office rejected fewer than ... Read more

Budapest, September 24 (MTI) – The number of migrants is not expected to drop considerably in the winter, the director of Hungary’s Institute for Migration Research told daily Magyar Hirlap on Thursday. Citing statistics, Balazs Orban said that the figures did decline in the winter of 2012 and 2013 but clearly increased in the winter of 2014, reflecting a change in motivations for migration. Conditions in Turkish refugee camps will continue to deteriorate, especially in the winter. A few years ago many Syrians chose to return to their homeland at that time, but now they are more inclined to set ... Read more

Budapest, September 23 (MTI) – Hungary is preparing to seal its railroad border crossing near Gyekenyes and will soon deploy a razor-lined boxcar onto the railroad tracks, local authorities told MTI on Wednesday. Since Friday police have been putting migrants entering from Croatia onto trains which then carried them to registration points. So far more than 15,000 migrants have been picked up in the village of Zakany on the Croatian border. Szabolcs Janko (Fidesz), the local mayor, confirmed to MTI that preparations are under way to seal the border, but he did not know when the fence would be completed. ... Read more

Budapest, September 23 (MTI) – Hungarian police on Tuesday rounded up more than 5,000 illegal migrants, 291 on the Serbian border while 4,823 crossed the Croatian border, a police spokesman said. Between midnight and 6am, police took action against 4 illegal migrants on the Serbian border and 4,506 on the Croatian border, Kristof Gal of the national police headquarters (ORFK) told public television’s new channel M1 on Wednesday. This brings the total number to have entered Hungary since the start of the year to 257,536. Altogether criminal proceedings have been launched against 189 people, the spokesman said. In the past ... Read more

Budapest, September 23 (MTI) – The Szeged county prosecutor’s office, in southern Hungary, initiated taking to court nine people for illegal border crossing on Tuesday, the office’s spokesman said. Seven migrants entered Hungary from Serbia illegally at Kelebia, one at Asotthalom and one at Morahalom, Ferenc Szanka said. The seven migrants at Kelebia climbed over or slipped under the border fence, while the other two migrants crossed the fence at places where it had been damaged by others, he added. Four of the suspects said they were Afghan nationals, another four said they were Syrians and one claimed to be ... Read more

Budapest, September 22 (MTI) – A train carrying thousands of migrants arrived in Hegyeshalom, on Hungary’s border with Austria, on Tuesday morning. The train left Barcs, in southwest Hungary, late on Monday, public news channel M1 reported from the site. The train had 16 carriages and was estimated to carry up to 2,000 people. Three other trains carrying migrants are expected to arrive by midday, the M1 correspondent said. Police apprehended 5,300 migrants at the Hungarian-Croatian border on Monday alone and 2,000 more by Tuesday 6 am, the national police headquarters said on its website. By way of Serbia, where ... Read more

Budapest, September 20 (MTI) – The Szeged Regional Court convicted a total of 23 migrants of crossing Hungary’s border illegally on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the Szeged Court told MTI. Erika Juhaszne Pragai revealed that the court expelled 11 illegal migrants for one and 12 migrants for two years from Hungary. Fifteen of the migrants were Afghan citizens, seven were Pakistani and one defendant was an Iranian national. All sentences are legally binding and none of the defendants asked for a written copy of the verdict, the court said. Out of the three accelerated proceedings, the court postponed two trials ... Read more

Budapest, September 20 (MTI) – By 6am on Sunday police had rounded up 217,382 migrants who had entered Hungary illegally since the start of the year, the police headquarters (ORFK) said on Sunday. Fully 201,335 had been picked up at the Serbia-Hungary border while 15,833 had been rounded up at the Croatian-Hungarian border, the ORFK said on its website. On Saturday 166 were picked up at the Serbian border while 4,740 had arrived at the Croatian one. By 6am on Sunday another 105 arrived at the Serbian border while another 3,100 were at the Croatian one. Ever since stricter regulations ... Read more

Budapest, September 18 (MTI) – The police have apprehended some 500-600 illegal migrants near Gyekenyes at the Hungary-Croatia border, believed to have walked across a nearby railway bridge, the police reported on Friday. The migrants, mostly young men, are taken to registration points, the police’s website said, but did not indicate the exact location. Meanwhile, over 800 migrants arrived on a train from Croatia to Hungary’s Magyarboly. The crowd, including many children, changed for a special train at the local station, in the direction of Pecs. The station is secured by some 50 armed police officers and soldiers. Photo: MTI

Budapest, September 18 (MTI) – The number of migrants waiting on the Serbian side of the Roszke-Horgos border crossing was down to 150-200 on Friday morning, a local MTI correspondent reported. A group of several dozens of migrants still continued their sitdown strike at Roszke 2, holding up signs in English with the words “Europe Shame” and “We stay without food and drink”. The tents occupying an area between the M5 motorway and the Serbian-Hungarian border on Thursday have disappeared by Friday. Traffic on the motorway crossing is likely to restart soon, the correspondent said. The migrants staying on the ... Read more

Budapest, September 18 (MTI) – Police apprehended 453 migrants in Baranya County, in southern Hungary, on Thursday by midnight but none have been spotted by patrols since, the local police’s website said. The Baranya County police headquarters said that most of the illegal migrants who crossed over the “green border” from Croatia said they were Syrians and Afghans. “The foreigners were cooperating with police, they did not resist and police did not have to resort to coercive measures, there were no personal injuries,” the website added. Photo: MTI